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Velvet CD swap

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So last year one of the Afterworders introduced me to the Velvet CD swap programme. Like all of us (I imagine) I am desperate to find new suckers on whom to inflict my mix tapes. This swap programme allows you to bombard three totally random strangers with your musical tastes and whimsies. It allowed me to promote the joys of Juliana Hatfield’s Nirvana (“makes me wanna go fuck shit up” – was ever truer musical criticism set to music?) – see rather dodgy new video below
All it costs is your time, some postage, 3 recorded CDs and of course, willingness to receive 3 tapes in return. I mean CDs.
It was quite a laugh – if surprisingly time consuming. Still with a shed load of work to write and incredibly tight deadlines, what better use of my time could there be?
http://velvetcdswap.com/sign-up/

http://velvetcdswap.com/sign-up/

2

Comments

  1. Beat me to it! (BTW, glad you enjoyed it last year)

    If anyone is considering joining in (all welcome), note that the timeframe is quite tight this year, so please be sure that you can get your CDs in the post (potentially to the other side of the world) by 12th October – at the latest – based on the rules being released on the 14th of September. It sounds easy enough but – as Paul says – it can be surprisingly time consuming.

    I only mention this as it’s an enormous hassle for the organisers if people are late, and they came very close to abandoning it this year after a fair amount of stress last time round.

  3. This sounded intriguing but then I looked at the 2014 Rules. I would have found this pretty taxing! For a start you would have to look through the list of 2105 bands.

    Rules from 2014

    The Uberlist Rule: As of latest count, 2105 bands have featured in previous VCDs. At least one of your tracks should be from a band to have never featured

    •Dave’s ‘Bob Dylan’ Rule: the original of a song where the cover is way more famous and way less good

    •Hal’s ‘Wait for the Drop’ Rule: A track notably lacking a bassline.

    •Doug’s ‘The World of Tomorrow’ Rule: Music from your house at the top of an arcology in your sparkling domed city of the future.

    •The World is a Big Place: You must include two songs NOT from Northern Europe, Western Europe (per the United Nations and please no Eurovision!!), USA*, Canada*, Australia*, New Zealand* or Japan. (*Music from Indigenous peoples will be accepted.)

    Mandatory (II). If you have taken part in a previous VCD.
    •The Usual Rule: You should include a track you liked from a V:CD you previously received

    Optional. You should cover at least FIVE of these rules.
    •Dean’s Marcia Rule For Artwork: First Come, First Served – Something that is a “first” from your music collection. So, a track from the first album you ever bought; the first song you ever heard by a particular band; a song by the first band you ever saw live etc. Should produce some good stories, hopefully.

    •The New Hotness: Something brand new and sparkly. Let us listen to the new hotness. You’d think we wouldn’t need to explain this one but last year some awful ejit decided that David Bowie who released his first single in 1964 counted as the New Hotness. The mind boggles. NEW GODDAMNIT (KIWI DAVE!)

    •The Winter Soldier: A song about winter or anything/anyone that’s really cold.

    •No Good Reason: Something that uses a non-standard instrument, like a toy piano, or a typewriter, or bicycle spokes… Found Object Instrumental might be the handy phrase for it. Yes, even a cowbell. Bonus points for theremin or bells.

    •The Nathan Rule: All men are c*nts

    •The Yo-Yo Ma Dubstep Rule: An artist performing in a genre (NO FUCKING GENRE QUIBBLES) outside their norm

    •Batman ALWAYS Wins: Interpret this as you will, you will be required to explain your answer.

    •My Sisters’ CD: A song from your collection which you will to your dying breath insist is actually from your sibling’s CD. (See recent discussions of Campbell and Kiwi Dave insisting they did not have any Zed)

    •The User-generated Content Rule: Create and nominate both a rule and the song that fulfills that rule. Truly awesome rule suggestions with standout song choices may be included in the (deity help us) 2015 Rules.

    •The Velvet Listening Hour Rule: A song which you believe Dave, Doug and Hal should be forced to endure and then discuss for a future episode of our terrible podcast. Please be kind.

    •Hall of Hot: An artist you started to listen to because you fancy them but then discovered they are actually good.

    •What Is Best (1994 Edition)?: Britpop or Grunge.

    • Taxing? The Juliana Hatfield song I used as an illustration ticked half a dozen boxes (Grunge, hot, listening hour, user generated [songs about other bands], unplayed etc.) Not really so tricky.

    • I wouldn’t get too hung up on the rules if they look a bit daunting, another factor is that some people take it as a challenge to be as “creative” with their interpretation of the rules as they can without flat out ignoring them. You just then need to come up with a creative/amusing justification…

      For that Uberlist rule, I generally end up adding a few obscurities anyway (no point sending out a disc full of stuff that everyone’s heard already) so just have a quick search of the masterlist to confirm.

      • You both are talking me round. I may be able to run to one disc – but I think I would need to buy some of the tracks as my music collection isn’t that big or eclectic. The World Is A Big Place was a bit offputting but I think I could manage at least 5 of the Optionals. They way it was set out made me feel I was sitting an A level in Advanced Music Geekology but I can see how it would be fun and challenging to put a disc together.

  5. Just signed up to this – it looks like fun. I miss the CD mix swaps from the old Word mingles, and this sounds like a kind of nerdy extension of those. I look forward to seeing the rules and very probably trying to circumvent them. Like you, @paulwright I’m going to be busy with work deadlines, but procrastination is a marvellous thing when it involves music…

  6. I’ve signed up.

    Not on Twitter, but I note that a tweet from Velvet CD Swap states “I was not prepared for Guernsey”…

    …don’t know whether to be impressed or (even more) scared!

  10. So, how did everybody do this year? Hear lots of exciting and interesting new stuff? Still waiting to receive anything?

    I received two of the promised three discs, both of which were pretty good. My own ended up a bit rushed and there were a couple of tracks I might’ve purged if I’d spent a bit longer on it, but it came out OK in the end I think. Not that everyone who heard it actually agreed…

    So if you’re interested in hearing what I came up with in response to these guidelines

    http://velvetcdswap.com/the-2015-rules/

    and that prompted such considered feedback as “Words fail me. Seriously. I have zero positive words about this utter dog turd of a track” and “Oh Christ on a bike, no more – please I can’t bear it” then have a delve into this

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gyabamtohzr2wox/AABN2HQOdKqiJ9-bImX48OIEa?dl=0

    Be gentle… 🙂

  11. Sent mine out on time and (to date) received two in return.

    One track on each I found particularly fine, so had to determine who they were and acquire albums by them. Although that is cheating a bit, I guess finding great tracks by unfamiliar artists and investigating further is at least part of benefit/enjoyment of this.

    (Martin T, by the way, in case of interest).

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